What a lot of you people don't get is that Korn is a band that has been striving hard to remain creatively relevant even though, by the mysterious whims of the gods of popular culture, they found themselves at the center of mainstream attention. There are many such bands that become extremely popular even though their music is non-conventional and non-conformist. All of a sudden, the band is thrown into the dog-eat-dog realm of the mainstream, dominated by plastically engineered music designed to satisfy the statistical and non-demanding MTV audience. At this point, a lot of bands just switch to automatic and release more of what made them popular without ever trying to push the envelope any more (and if they do, they tend to make music so removed from the trends in the underground that it can be seen as a joke, at best). Surviving in such a world is not such an easy thing to do and most bands end up destroying themselves, either creatively (Metallica) or literally (Nirvana). I am happy to say that some minor missteps aside, Korn seems to be coping with their popularity just fine and the new album See You On The Other Side is for the most part a very rewarding and interesting listen.

I'm not a huge fan of nu-metal right now, but Korn used to be a favourite of mine. They've been trying to re-invent themselves for a while now, from the electronic beats and strings on Untouchables to the hard-hitting Take A Look In The Mirror, to the borderline-electronica of the untitled album. But I still think that this album, where Korn went industrial, was their most successful attempt at reinvention yet, and made the untitled album even more disappointing.